News of: Wednesday, 31st of October, 2012

Front Page

In a shift in her party's stand, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia yesterday warmed up to connectivity with India and New Delhi's participation in a consortium with China to build a deep-sea port at Sonadia in Mongla.

Millions of people were left reeling in the aftermath of monster storm Sandy yesterday as New York City and a wide swathe of the eastern United States struggled with epic flooding and massive power outages.

The Anti-Corruption Commission will not be able to file a first information report (FIR) over graft allegations in Padma bridge project unless Canada provides it with relevant information, a high official of the ACC said yesterday.

The deputy commissioner (DC) of Jhalakathi has advised Limon Hossain to apply for clemency in the two cases Rab filed against him hours after he had been shot and maimed by some of the elite force members.

After two prosecution witnesses, an investigator of international crimes tribunal yesterday also said Jamaat-e-Islami leader AKM Yusuf formed the Razakar force, an auxiliary force of the Pakistani army, during the Liberation War.

Editorial

Aseries of 'disappearances' have occurred in Aminbazar area of Savar. These have caused quite a stir among the local community. What is even more worrisome is that suspicion of such 'disappearances' points to involvement of law enforcement agencies as alleged by affected families. Five young men went missing on October 23 from Bardesi village and families are baffled that although 19 days have elapsed, there is still no trace of them. In another incident on October 10, two individuals belonging to the same village in Aminbazar went missing.

We have no words to express our utter shock at the way sculptor Rashid Ahmed and his daughter-in-law Nurun Nahar suffered in an Indian jail without trial for some eight years. Had it not been for the exposé in the media and payment of the fines as part of the court sentence by some kind businessmen their release might well have been further delayed.

Sports

The Bangladesh women's cricket team lost the all-important semifinal game to Pakistan by six wickets in the Asian Cricket Council's (ACC) Twenty20 cup, in Ghuangzhou, China yesterday. The women in green, who were put in to bat by their Pakistan counterparts on a rainy morning, posted a below-par total of 82 for seven in 20 overs. In reply Pakistan reached their target with 14 balls to spare.

The Bangladesh Premier League, the top flight of the professional football league will begin on November 13 with nine teams playing in four venues, said the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) yesterday. According to the original BFF calendar, the league was supposed to begin on November 10 but the professional league committee of BFF decided to defer it at the request of the participating clubs.

The Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF) on Tuesday decided to ban Cox City Football Club from all kinds of BFF approved activities for five years as the club without any notice declined to participate in Bangladesh Premier League and some other national level competitions.

Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has released the ticket rates for the upcoming home series against West Indies. West Indies will arrive in Dhaka on November 5 to play two Tests, five one-day internationals and one Twenty20

Grand Master Enamul Hossain Rajib took the solo lead in the Vizag Grand Masters International Open Chess Tournament at the end of the sixth round games at the Rajib Gandhi Indoor Stadium at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh in India.

Indian home ministry on Tuesday cleared Pakistan cricket team's tour of India for a limited-overs series beginning December 25 and said that the government will provide foolproof security to the visiting team.

The Norwegian Football Association (NFF) has a novel idea to even out one-sided matches - if a team go four goals down they can bring on another player, a proposal backed by former international Henning Berg.

The changes to the playing conditions for different formats of cricket, which include amendments to Powerplays, DRS, no-balls and bouncers among others, took effect from October 30, when Sri Lanka played New Zealand in a Twenty20 international in Pallekele.

Argentina and Barcelona forward Lionel Messi is in line to become the first man to win the World Player of the Year award for the fourth time in a row after the shortlist for FIFA's Ballon d'Or was published on Monday.

London's Metropolitan Police have confirmed that they have received a complaint about allegedly racist comments made by a top flight referee during last weekend's match between Chelsea and Manchester United.

Racism, a problem that English football thought it had solved, has returned to haunt the country that gave birth to the game, with the Premier League's global popularity on the line after a succession of scandals.

A 3-3 draw between Wanderers and Juventud in the Uruguayan first division ended in chaos as the referee, who had already sent off one player, brandished 16 more red cards when fighting broke out after the final whistle.

Manchester United midfielder Shinji Kagawa has been ruled out of Japan's World Cup qualifier in Oman on November 14 due to a knee injury he suffered a week ago, the Japan Football Association said Tuesday.

The Football Association on Monday launched an investigation into claims referee Mark Clattenburg used "inappropriate language" towards two Chelsea players during their match with Manchester United on Sunday.

Businesses and legal experts yesterday once again urged the government not to go ahead with the proposed amendment to the Companies Act that allows the government to appoint administrators to rogue companies bypassing the court system.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) last week asked the government to abolish a proposed rule that allows the National Board of Revenue to sanction VAT exemption for different sectors “in the public interest”.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) left interest rates on hold on Tuesday but cut the cash reserve ratio for banks, defying pressure from the government to lower rates for the first time since April but also indicating it may ease policy in early 2013.

Last week I gave a speech on “healthy capitalism” at Oxford University. Before doing so, I tried the idea out on an academic friend of mine. He scoffed at it. For him, “healthy capitalism” was an oxymoron. Five years after the start of the world's worst financial crisis in decades, it is easy to mock capitalism. The system ran amok --leading to debt, unemployment and shrinking economies.

While Bangladeshi students' performance in the International Mathematics Olympiad (IMO) is on the rise, the overall number of the country's students studying math and science unfortunately is declining.

Speakers at a programme marking inauguration of a herbal garden in Rangamati Sadar upazila yesterday emphasised protecting the environment and traditional culture of the jumma people for development of the community as well as overall interest of the whole country and its people.

Trade through Hili land port resumed yesterday morning after 11 days of closure. The export and import activities at the port came to a halt on October 19 due to the Eid-Ul-Azha and Durga Puja in the two countries. However, immigration remained open during the holidays, said Khwza Nazimuddin, an immigration official at the land port.

A teenage school student, who was allegedly abducted by criminals from Singa village under Shigashobpur union in Sadar upazila on October 25, was rescued from a house at Tarapur village yesterday. Earlier, the father of the victim filed a case accusing five people. The accused are Miskar Sardar Tufan and his four accomplices of the village. Sub-inspector (SI) Mokaddes Hossain of Narail police station said that the family members of Miskar Sardar Tufan handed over the girl to the union parishad chairman in the morning and fled the scene. "We are trying to arrest the criminals," he added.

An employee of Khulna City Corporation (KCC) was hacked to death by criminals near Boya Textile Mill under the city's Sonadanga PS on Monday night. The deceased was identified as Guddu, 25, a resident of the area. Police said Guddu was attacked by a gang of criminals. The gang hacked him with sharp weapons, leaving him fatally injured at around 9:30. His body was recovered from Moylapota slum area at 11:00pm, they said.

Members of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) rescued 10 people from Putkhali border yesterday morning while they were being trafficked to India. The victims, including a woman and a child, hailed from different areas in Faridpur and Narail districts. Acting on a tip-off, a BGB team raided the area and rescued the ten when they were being trafficked to India through the border, said Subedar Ayub Hossain, in-charge of Putkhali BGB Camp. However, no one was arrested as the human traffickers fled the scene sensing the presence of the border guards, he said.

Two housewives died from snakebites at different places in Sadullapur upazila yesterday. Jyotsna Rani, 35, wife of Khoka Chandra Das of village Baro Daudpur in the upazila was bitten by a poisonous snake when she opened an old and long unused leather suitcase. She died on the spot. In second incident, housewife Marzina Begum, 42, of village Joyenpur, while coming from her parents' house at noon, was bitten by a poisonous snake at a paddy field. She fell unconscious and later died while being taken to Rangpur Medical College Hospital.

A traditional boat race was held at Harta on the Sandhaya River in Wazirpur upazila on Monday. Organised by Harta Bazaar Committee on the occasion of Laxmi Puja, the race was aimed at patronising indigenous sports and rural culture. The race started from Harta old union parishad at 4:00pm and ended at Harta Bazaar Ghat. Thirteen teams, including one women's, from different areas of the region participated in the competition. Monirul Islam, MP, attended the occasion as the chief guest.

Body of a man was found in a toilet of a mosque in Companiganj upazila on Monday night. The dead was identified as Abu Naim, 30, son of Md. Zaharul Hoque of Bashirhat municipality in the same upazila. Md. Emran Ali, officer in-charge of Companiganj police station said, a devotee opened the door of the toilet and saw Abu Naim lying on the floor around 11pm. Police recovered the body and sent it to Noakhali Medical College Hospital morgue for autopsy. Police found some marks of injuries in the body, the OC added.

Letters

Teachers are supposed to give direction to the country but it is others who give direction to the teachers here in Bangladesh. Treated as inferior class in our country, teachers are left out from all kinds of decision-making process.

One of the major transportation services of Dhaka city is in turmoil as the CNG drivers are still not obeying laws. They don't go by the meter. Although early in this year there had been strong movement against this misconduct of the drivers, the CNG auto rickshaw drivers are back to charging a lump sum from their passengers which is usually way too much than what the normal fare would be if they used the meter.

I am writing this letter to condemn the recent attacks on the Muslims made by the Buddhists in Myanmar. The recent attacks on the Rohingyas were heinous and the way the government of Myanmar is handling the situation is very appalling.

Day by day the India-Bangladesh border is becoming a death trap for the Bangladeshi people. At present not one day goes by without any Bangladeshi getting killed by BSF on the border. Moreover, India advises us to say the word 'death' instead of 'killing'. Previously, the BSF chief said that the BSF men should not be held guilty for these killings. These extra-judicial killings are a violation of human rights. India is always giving us word that they will take necessary steps to stop border killing. But in reality we see the opposite. They are not sincere in keeping their promises.

A news item referring to a UNESCO report published in this daily recently says that Bangladesh has over eight million young people aged between 15 and 24 years. They never completed primary school and we are among the top five worst nations in this regard in the world. In addition, the GMR put the figure of illiterate adults in the world at 775 million. Of them, Bangladesh alone has 44 million, the fourth highest in the world. How can we think of our national progress keeping a quarter of the young people almost uneducated? The government should find out ways of solving this problem.

The present government seems determined to create one crisis after another for themselves. On the pretext of taking over a bank-looter company, the authorities now propose to amend the Companies Act. With such amendment the government can take over any business enterprise with impunity. Even courts of law would have little to do against it. As the first reports were published, the business community was shocked. They registered serious protests against the government move.

Justice is lost in Bangladesh. We know that if a person rings the police for emergency matter in the US, the police arrives in the scene in less than five minutes. On the other hand, if a person in Bangladesh calls police, police ask the person to come to the police station instead of going there themselves. Witnesses in courts are bribed, counterfeit evidences are produced, lawyers are threatened, and documents are falsified.

International

As security forces police the edgy aftermath of sectarian bloodshed in western Myanmar, fearful Buddhists and Muslims are arming themselves with homemade weapons, testing the government's resolve to prevent a new wave of violence.

Less than a week after BJP president Nitin Gadkari's name surfaced in an alleged wrongdoing in his business, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi yesterday accused his party of inaction against its corrupt leaders.

A tense and unpredictable race for the White House became even more so on Monday, as mammoth storm Sandy created delicate political challenges for President Barack Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney and raised the possibility of a chaotic voting process.

The chief investigating officer of the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, K Ragothaman, has alleged that the then IB chief, M K Narayanan, had "suppressed a vital piece of evidence": a video tape showing "human bomb" Dhanu at the Sriperumbudur venue prior to the former prime minister's arrival.

Polish prosecutors yesterday denied that any traces of explosives had been found on the wreck of a presidential jet which crashed in Russia in 2010, killing then president Lech Kaczynski and 95 other people.

Ukraine's ruling party was set Monday to beat the allies of jailed ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko in legislative elections that observers condemned as a setback for the ex-Soviet state's nascent democracy.

Italian ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi's People of Freedom party on Monday lost a key regional election in Sicily seen as a barometer for national polls due in April, handing victory to a centre-left anti-Mafia candidate.

Arts & Entertainment

Kona is a top name in the music industry. However fame did not come her way overnight. Years of dedication helped her secure a spot at the zenith. The artiste released a video album titled “Simply Kona” recently (around Eid-ul-Azha), and has plans to release another album on Nazrul Sangeet soon.

To celebrate 40 years of diplomatic relationship between Bangladesh and the Czech Republic, as well as to observe 37th death anniversary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the Bangladesh Embassy in Germany organised an event at Charles University in Prague on October 16. The programme featured a seminar, musical soiree, dance performance and reception.

After a hiatus, noted Bangladeshi expatriate painter Tajuddin Ahmed is holding a solo painting exhibition. The current exhibition, titled “My Basket Full of Kash Phul and Dandelion”, will open at Institute of Art and Culture in Gulshan, Dhaka today, and will continue till November 10. His last solo art show was held at Tivoli Gallery in Gulshan in 2009.

“Mrityu Parey Bari”, a feature documentary directed by Razibul Hossain and the students of Media Studies and Journalism of University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB), has been selected for the special environmental day of the South Asian Film Festival in Vancouver, Canada next month.

A boat race was held on the river Gorai on the occasion of Durga Puja. 'Amra Grambashi', a group of Kalinagar village, under Sreepur upazila arranged the traditional event with the cooperation of the residents of adjoining villages.

The 100-year-old traditional bazaar known as 'Laxmir Haat' -- for sales of idols and varieties of pottery items used in Laxmi Puja -- began at Barisal Hatkhola Hori Mandir premises from last Saturday on the eve of the Puja.

OP-ED

America can sometimes be an intriguing place when it comes to politics. And you notice that especially in a presidential election year, when candidates sometimes make all those mistakes or come forth with all those bloopers that leave you quite amazed. Last week, it was Mitt Romney's turn to add to election year silliness when he told Americans at his final debate with Barack Obama that Iran was in need of an outlet to the sea through Syria. It did not occur to him that Iran had a huge coastline of its own and hence had absolutely no need of a passage through Syria. Suddenly, to many of us, it was just one more instance of how unprepared some men are when they decide that they must be president of the United States.

In a BBC interview about her novel The God of Small Things, Indian author Arundhati Roy was asked a familiar question: "With all your talent and gifts, why do you not choose to tell 'good' stories about our part of the world?"

On October 28, BNP Chairperson and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia left for India for a week's visit which is important for both sides. It has provided each others' perspectives on bilateral relations at the highest political level.

So far about 62 private universities have been established in Bangladesh, with enrolment of about 60% of the university students of the country. This means a larger private sector coexists with a smaller but strong public sector. However, it is generally believed that only a small number of the private universities impart quality education. All these universities are teaching universities; they are not capable of undertaking research of international standard. None of them is ranked globally or regionally, although some are good given local standard.